Private Travel Agents Selling Onboard?

[xxHadleyxx]

On our Oasis TA, we saw something I have not seen before. I am wondering if this is common and we have just missed it, or if this was a bit out of the ordinary (honestly, it struck us as tacky and we were a bit surprised RCI allowed it):

 

Down the hall from us, a travel agent was sailing. She posted several "ads" on her door throughout the week, of future cruises she could book deals on with pricing and her agency name, etc and was encouraging people to leave their room numbers and meet with her to book, take her card, etc.

 

Is this becoming a common practice?

[Merion_Mom]

On our Oasis TA, we saw something I have not seen before. I am wondering if this is common and we have just missed it, or if this was a bit out of the ordinary (honestly, it struck us as tacky and we were a bit surprised RCI allowed it):

 

Down the hall from us, a travel agent was sailing. She posted several "ads" on her door throughout the week, of future cruises she could book deals on with pricing and her agency name, etc and was encouraging people to leave their room numbers and meet with her to book, take her card, etc.

 

Is this becoming a common practice?

 

Ugh. :(

 

I am not quite sure how Royal Caribbean would even know that she was doing this.

[novicetraveller]

On our Oasis TA, we saw something I have not seen before. I am wondering if this is common and we have just missed it, or if this was a bit out of the ordinary (honestly, it struck us as tacky and we were a bit surprised RCI allowed it):

 

Down the hall from us, a travel agent was sailing. She posted several "ads" on her door throughout the week, of future cruises she could book deals on with pricing and her agency name, etc and was encouraging people to leave their room numbers and meet with her to book, take her card, etc.

 

Is this becoming a common practice?

 

I personally haven't seen it before. However, I don't see it as a problem as long as the TA isn't going around canvasing business face to face. The trip could well have been sponsored by their employer in hope that they can drum up some business.

[ARCruisinNana]

There were many Travel Agents on board the Oasis TA escorting their groups. It's possible they were letting members of their group know about specials that came available.

 

 

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[Clarea]

On our Oasis TA, we saw something I have not seen before. I am wondering if this is common and we have just missed it, or if this was a bit out of the ordinary (honestly, it struck us as tacky and we were a bit surprised RCI allowed it):

 

Down the hall from us, a travel agent was sailing. She posted several "ads" on her door throughout the week, of future cruises she could book deals on with pricing and her agency name, etc and was encouraging people to leave their room numbers and meet with her to book, take her card, etc.

 

Is this becoming a common practice?

I've never seen that before.

[Ltgfrk]

Saw this on the Vision last week.

[grandgeezer]

We've seen this several times. When a travel agency has a group booking, with a lot of passengers booked through them, they send an agent, or two. They coordinate all their events such as cocktail party, wine tastings and slot pulls. They are allowed to sell on the ship as long as they only sell cruises for the company that owns the ship, and it's affiliates such as Celebrity and Azamara.

[Cindy]

I have not seen that, and hope I don't in the future. What's to stop it from being just travel agents? Can you imagine what it would be like if in addition to RCI hawking anything and everything the ship turned into a floating vendor fair?:(

 

I can't imagine the ship management knew about this. They're pretty picky about competition, and I've read of them even stepping in to stop a CC group from having a paid event. I know they also don't like people collecting money for independent excursions on board the ship.

 

 

[LMaxwell]

I thought solicitation was prohibited? A travel agent actively seeking business onboard seems to be directly against RCI selling future cruises.

[setsail]

Why didn't you ask while on the ship?

 

Since 70% + of all rci cruises are sold by Ta's............

 

RCI loves its ta's

Edited September 22, 2014 by setsail

[CRUISEBOY305]

poor taste :mad:

[jerrib]

I'm thinking that Royal is okay with this practice. Surely the Room Steward saw the info on the door throughout the cruise.

 

I know if the steward finds a forbidden bottle of liquor in the room he is instructed to notify the uppers of the violation. If this travel agent soliciting was against the rules that the same would occur and apparently it didn't.

 

Just a thought.

[3CatsInMA]

I have not seen this either. But how could Royal not allow it when they tell us:

 

;):D

Edited September 22, 2014 by 3CatsInMA

[LMaxwell]

I have not seen this either. But how could Royal not allow it when they tell us:

 

;):D

 

Because the Travel Agent isn't necessarily selling ONLY Royal/Celebrity/Azamara cruises. I am sure they would happily take a deposit from anyone for any cruise line, and that is a dent into Royals captive onboard audience.

[grandgeezer]

We've seen this several times. When a travel agency has a group booking, with a lot of passengers booked through them, they send an agent, or two. They coordinate all their events such as cocktail party, wine tastings and slot pulls. They are allowed to sell on the ship as long as they only sell cruises for the company that owns the ship, and it's affiliates such as Celebrity and Azamara.

 

The last time I saw it was on the Celebrity Constellation, and almost 1/4 of the passengers had booked through them. This on line travel agency is RCL's?Celebrity's biggest seller. They had a desk set up in the Atrium and it was only available to the people who booked this cruise for them. The cocktail party was in Skye, the lectures were held in the theater, the wine tasting was done in the Tuscon Grill, and the slot pull was held in the Casino. I think the ship knew about it.

[tonto524]

I'm a retired travel agent and I'm pretty suprised that RCI and/or the individual ships are allowing this to happen. When I traveled with groups we were told by every cruise line that we were not permitted to solicit business in any way, shape or form (same when we traveled as individual passengers) while on the cruise and that doing so could cause the agency to lose its privileges with the cruise line. I can maybe see an agency with a group on board placing advertising for other sailings in or at their OWN GROUP'S cabins - or making announcements of such at group-only functions - but, to publically advertise even for the cruise line they are sailing on seems to fly in the face of the on-board booking process that the cruise line encourages. It's just my humble opinion, but I really don't want to see this while I'm relaxing on a cruise and it just feels wrong to me. JMHO.

[SnorkelAway]

I know if the steward finds a forbidden bottle of liquor in the room he is instructed to notify the uppers of the violation. If this travel agent soliciting was against the rules that the same would occur and apparently it didn't.

 

Seriously? I can tell you that I have known a few cabin stewards who do not report finding an opened bottle of liquor in a cabin - not that it was in my cabin, of course....

[3CatsInMA]

Because the Travel Agent isn't necessarily selling ONLY Royal/Celebrity/Azamara cruises. I am sure they would happily take a deposit from anyone for any cruise line, and that is a dent into Royals captive onboard audience.

 

I am aware of this, but thank you! I was just making a tongue in cheek comment.

 

:)

 

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[jerrib]

Seriously? I can tell you that I have known a few cabin stewards who do not report finding an opened bottle of liquor in a cabin - not that it was in my cabin, of course....

I have read on many posts in the past that when the supervisors make their random checks of the staterooms that the steward will be reprimanded for not reporting the liquor situation. Maybe this is true, maybe not. Being discreet and keeping it out of sight seems to be the way to go just in case.

Not that this would occur in my cabin, of course....

[xxHadleyxx]

I find it interesting that a couple of others have seen it in more or les the same way as well.

 

I do not think a travel agent that booked a large group having special activities for that booked group is the same thing at all. Any group can do things among themselves, or pay for space (or be given space as a thank you--much like the meet and mingle parties) etc, but that is not the same as advertising and trying to sell to the ship in general.

 

Based on the signs and what was written on the dry erase board on the door, the agent was selling to anyone on board, not just a group that came on with her.

 

Someone asked (on the dry erase board) if the agent was competing with onboard booking--the agent wrote a reply a couple days later that was hard to understand but I think was saying that people would get an onboard booking certificate and then bring it to her to book a specific cruise.

 

I assume it was allowed, since the door had this stuff on it all until the last night. On the other hand, I imagine that the stewards might not bother to read door signs (are they required to police THOSE? I doubt it) and might not have noticed that this was advertising and not just the general randomness that people put up.

 

I'm a retired travel agent and I'm pretty suprised that RCI and/or the individual ships are allowing this to happen. When I traveled with groups we were told by every cruise line that we were not permitted to solicit business in any way, shape or form (same when we traveled as individual passengers) while on the cruise and that doing so could cause the agency to lose its privileges with the cruise line. I can maybe see an agency with a group on board placing advertising for other sailings in or at their OWN GROUP'S cabins - or making announcements of such at group-only functions - but, to publically advertise even for the cruise line they are sailing on seems to fly in the face of the on-board booking process that the cruise line encourages. It's just my humble opinion, but I really don't want to see this while I'm relaxing on a cruise and it just feels wrong to me. JMHO.

 

That was sort of my take on it. I hope it does not become a typical thing.

[SnorkelAway]

Being discreet and keeping it out of sight seems to be the way to go just in case.

 

The better part of valor is discretion.

[tonto524]

I know that a large majority of travel agents make very little money and I applaud creativity in marketing, but I think passengers should absolutely bring this kind of on board public advertising to the attention of Guest Services and the onboard RCI agent and stop the practice. A free marketplace is one thing, but trying to sell one's wares on board a cruise ship to a captive audience is just plain wrong IMHO. With absolutely no disrespect to those who work so hard in their businesses, what would stop a jewelry or cosmetics or auto or clothing or cookware business owner from advertising and disseminating THEIR product info to other passengers and offering to handle a sale? It's pretty much the same thing in my book and in my opinion not what I'd like to experience on my vacation. Sorry, but I'm just really, really surprised by this turn of events and potential slippery slope.

 

 

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[cruisegirl1]

I know that a large majority of travel agents make very little money and I applaud creativity in marketing, but I think passengers should absolutely bring this kind of on board public advertising to the attention of Guest Services and the onboard RCI agent and stop the practice. A free marketplace is one thing, but trying to sell one's wares on board a cruise ship to a captive audience is just plain wrong IMHO. With absolutely no disrespect to those who work so hard in their businesses, what would stop a jewelry or cosmetics or auto or clothing or cookware business owner from advertising and disseminating THEIR product info to other passengers and offering to handle a sale? It's pretty much the same thing in my book and in my opinion not what I'd like to experience on my vacation. Sorry, but I'm just really, really surprised by this turn of events and potential slippery slope.

 

 

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I recall a post from a cruiser who sold make up or jewelry ( just cant recall - but it was a well known business), wanting to set up a small table near one of the elevator banks. Never heard if it happened.

 

I can see it now - RCCL can set up flea market tables and generate additional revenue. Fee for a table and a % of the sales! :eek:

 

M

[PerferWarmWeather]

On a recent Serenade trip a TA was talking very loudly about what he did and could offer people as he met them in the Diamond Lounge. He also said how his company was better than others. A Big blow hard IMO.:eek:

[tonto524]

A flea market area !! Hilarious ! Too bad I got rid of all of my "drink of the day" hurricane glasses - they'd be perfect to sell. Lol.

 

 

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